United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service United Nations Commission and Economic Commission for Europe Conference of European Statisticians May 14-16, 2005 A presentation by Jeff Beranek and Bob McEwen for: UNECE, Ottawa Canada Slide 1

United States Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service Topic (iv) : New and emerging methods, including automation through machine learning, imputation, evaluation of methods. Improving an Edit and Imputation System for the United States Census of Agriculture A presentation by Jeff Beranek and Bob McEwen for: UNECE, Ottawa Canada Slide 2

United States Census of Agriculture 2002: Slide 3 United States Census of Agriculture 2002: A Retrospective Scope and Background Failures Successes Planning for 2007

Scope and Background Quinquennial census of all US farms Slide 4 Scope and Background Quinquennial census of all US farms Responsibility of BOC through 1997; USDA/NASS since 1997 NASS implemented sweeping changes in 2002

Failures Scanning for data capture (OCR) Database model Slide 5 Failures Scanning for data capture (OCR) Database model Implementation of edit code Imputation/Donor pool creation and maintenance Testing

Successes National Processing Center Scanning for Image Slide 6 Successes National Processing Center Scanning for Image DLTs/Authoring System Data Review System Analysis System

Planning for 2007 No scanning for data capture Change database model Slide 7 Planning for 2007 No scanning for data capture Change database model Increase speed of processing code Improve imputation methodology and donor pool design/creation Develop and implement QC/QA processes Allow adequate development and testing time